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Monday, May 18, 2009

Colin Wilson Comes to Music City

Ed. Note: The following is more of a formal rewrite for The Daily Herald of a story from Sunday.------------------------------------------------

Colin Wilson, the Nashville Predator’s Top Prospect, made his Music City debut Sunday when he met with the local press and signed autographs for three hours for fans that were anxious to get a look at the youngster.

The 19 year old Center, who hails from Greenwich, CT, had a tremendous season this year. At Boston University, he finished second in the Hobey Baker voting (College Player of the Year) as he led the team in points (55) and assists (38) on the way to BU winning the NCAA National Championship.

Over the last few weeks, Wilson was the only non-NHL level player on the Team USA team that played in the World Championship Tournament in Switzerland. Earlier this year he played for the US Junior team at the World Junior tournament where he was named the Most Outstanding Player.

Wilson used his experience at the World Championships to see a faster game that made him realize what needed to be done to play on the NHL level. Wilson explained, “I learned there are certain parts of my game I’m going to have to work on if I want to be on the Predators and make an impact with the team.”

He gave Team USA and Predator teammate Ryan Suter credit for coaching him on many things while in Switzerland. “You have to learn a few things before going into training camp, how to be a pro, how to handle yourself off of the ice. I definitely learned that and more for off of the ice.”

Apart from the formal interview, we met an incredibly nice young man, fresh off the college campus that would be any parent's dream to have as a son. He is very polite and well spoken and will be adored by the Predator fans once he comes to Nashville for good, which may be sooner than you might think.

At the press conference, we got to witness a couple of really neat things. Prior to the interview Colin Wilson was given his first real Predator jersey with his name and number 33 sewn on the back. The jersey that he was given at the draft was a Velcro model so names could have been interchanged depending on who was taken in the draft.

The second thing that really says a lot about Wilson's character was that after the presser, he saw my son, Jackson, standing behind the rest of the crowd and Wilson walked over to Jackson and introduced himself.

On the surface, it doesn't seem like a big thing, but many kids his age, both in and out of sports, do not have the manners and courtesy to even notice that there was someone in a group of ten or so folks to whom he had not been introduced.

Colin Wilson is the prototype individual that a franchise can build a team around. He is a winner both on and off the ice.

Matt, The organization likes for everyone to spend time in the AHL. Ryan Jones and Patric Hornqvist skipped the step this year and were back in Milwaukee by Thanksgiving. Jones did return for the bulk of the season. Wilson appears to be a special case and has a good chance to stick in October if he meets the goals the team has given him. He got a great look at what it will take at the Worlds and seems to really be a solid kid so it will be interesting. Whether he starts in Nashville or not, I would expect him to spend the better part of the next season here even if he starts in the AHL. Can you tell that he impressed me?

One of my My Other Gigs

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